Which African leaders qualify as an icon? Perhaps this is always a controversial question, but it was much easier to answer, say, 25 years ago, when the public memories of Pan-Africanist champions such as Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere were still fresh, Nelson Mandela had just walked out of prison, and Robert Mugabe was a widely respected leader.
This edition of Perspectives contributes to the ongoing debate on infrastructure development in Africa by sharing snapshots of experience from around the continent, exploring questions about democratic participation, the role of human and environmental rights, and economic transformation.
Informed by the discussions at an international conference jointly organised by the German Development Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Stanford University on “Emerging Power or Fading Star? South Africa’s Role on the Continent and Beyond”, held 12–14 July 2016 in Cape Town, the articles gathered in this edition of Perspectives shed light on some of the nuances and challenges that define South Africa’s place in the world today.
Activists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social movements across the world are facing verbal hostility from politicians, new laws and regulations that curtail their ability to operate, and outright violence. Africa is no exception.
When you write about Africa, make sure to always include sad and starving characters, advises Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainana in his famously ironic essay “How to write about Africa”, which takes aim at Western prejudices. In the same way that everyday laughter has been excluded from all-too-familiar depictions of the continent, African humour and satire as a form of social and political engagement remains underexplored.
Has the G20 Hijacked UN Processes?
The debate of a proposed infrastructure initiative within the United Nations (UN) proves to be a revealing case study of how the Group of 20, an informal entity with restricted membership, has been able to influence and pre-empt outcomes in a formal, universal membership institution such as the UN. The debate is occurring in the context of negotiating the outcome document of the UN Financing for Development (FfD) Conference which will take place in Addis Ababa in July.
The G20 views “financing for development” as its priority as well. For instance, at an April 2015 Think 20 event in Washington, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan stated that the G20 addresses the
In recent years, the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - have emerged as important outward investors. At the 2013 BRICS Summit, leaders committed to infrastructure investment, job-creation, food security, poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa. India's current investments in Africa amount to more than US$ 50bn. This research provides insight into the operations of specific Indian companies in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zambia and their impact on the communities.
For this edition of Perspectives the Heinrich Böll Foundation asked a number of African intellectuals, writers and analysts to provide their take on Africa’s relationship with Europe. The result is a small collection of interviews, short essays and comments that throw light on the complexities and complexes of this relationship, using analysis, imagery, experience, provocation and humour.
It is our hope that you really enjoyed reading the last issue #20 of the G20 and the BRICS UPDATE.
In this Issue, we look at how poor governance bulldozes consensus beyond the public eye, as the G20 is doing with regard to most aspects of its Global Infrastructure Initiative, which will be launched at the November Summit. The initiative will privatize aspects of governance in order to move from "retail" to "wholesale" investment strategies through use of “pooled funds” to finance large “portfolios” of public private partnership (PPP) projects (despite their demonstrated high failure rate). Below, part 1 reviews aspects of the G20’s Global Infrastructure Initiative and part 2 reviews the performance evaluation of World Bank-financed PPPs over a decade.
Enjoy!
